Triskaidekaphobia?

Situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are ones where you need to ask lots of yes or no questions to figure out what happened in the situation. These are good puzzles for groups where one person knows the puzzle and answers the questions.

A well-respected franchise of a national association absolutely refuses to place the number thirteen on any of their merchandise. Although they use nearly every other two-digit number, something about that particular number prevents them from using it. They are not superstitious in the least. In fact, they have a truly honorable reason for not using the number thirteen.

What is that reason?

Hint

The number was used long ago, but its unique history prevents it from being used ever again.Hide